Mr. Herman Tjeenk Willink
Cabinet Informateur
Dear Informateur,
Human Rights Watch is an international nongovernmental organization based in New York that monitors and reports on international human rights, refugee, and humanitarian law issues in some 90 countries around the world. On September 14, 2010, we are launching an Amsterdam office, one of 15 that we now have in different countries around the world, with presences in 21 more.
The purpose of our Amsterdam office is manifold. We recognize and praise the work of many colleague organizations in the Netherlands, as well as institutions of the Dutch government itself, that have contributed to a strong, "rights-friendly" environment for public discussion on a range of international issues. We seek to join and enliven that discussion and know that we will find many willing partners in such a dialogue.
But we are not setting up an office in the Netherlands just to talk. We want to encourage the Dutch government to give the highest possible priority to human rights in its bilateral relations with other states; to increase the constituency within the European Union for strong, multilateral human rights policies; and to show leadership on human rights at the United Nations and in other international bodies.
Human Rights Watch operates on the basis of informed reporting. Our Amsterdam office will help make the detailed documentation of human rights issues that we publish every year, in roughly 100 separate reports, more readily available to the Dutch media, Dutch policymakers, and the Dutch public more generally. We have recruited a committee of Human Rights Watch supporters in the Netherlands who will assist us in raising the funds to sustain our research and advocacy all over the globe-Human Rights Watch takes no funding from any government-and who will help us to spread our message and increase our impact.
Our worldwide staff is still very small, fewer than 300 people. We will not be able to comment or have impact upon every foreign policy issue facing the Dutch government. But where we can, we will intervene in an informed and independent manner.
As you work to form a new government, Human Rights Watch would like to outline key areas of foreign and domestic policy where we believe that the Netherlands can and should do more to promote and protect human rights.
Asylum and Protection against Return to Persecution and Abuse
Human Rights Watch is alarmed at efforts by the Netherlands authorities to deport persons to Somalia, in light of the grave risks of abuse on their return. These deportations are contrary to international law and to guidelines of the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees (UNHCR), which advises against all deportations to south-central Somalia. According to the Dutch Refugee Council, the Dutch government deported a Somali rejected asylum seeker to Mogadishu via Nairobi on September 1. We urge the new government to halt further deportations to Somalia.
The Council of Europe Commissioner on Human Rights and the UN Human Rights Committee, in assessments of the Netherlands' human rights record in 2009, expressed serious concerns about access to asylum and protection against return to abuse, despite proposed changes to problematic accelerated asylum procedures that entered into force in June 2010. We urge the new government to look at the system afresh to address these concerns.
Human Rights Watch is also concerned about the return of asylum seekers to Greece under the EU Dublin II regulation, which permits the return of asylum seekers to the first EU country through which they pass. We have extensively documented the broken asylum system in Greece. We share the view of UNHCR that "[t]he Greek asylum system does not, at present, adequately protect asylum seekers, including Dublin returnees, against return to persecution or serious harm."
The Dutch authorities have suspended returns of Somali asylum seekers to Greece following an interim ruling by the European Court of Human Rights, and some individual returns to Greece have been blocked by the Dutch courts. But the Netherlands continues to undertake Dublin returns to Greece of other asylum seekers. The Dutch government recently asserted that the Netherlands has no responsibility under the European Convention on Human Rights for abuses arising from Dublin returns. Human Rights Watch does not agree with such a narrow approach, which ignores the Netherlands' obligation not to return persons to persecution and abuse.
We urge the Dutch government to suspend all Dublin returns to Greece until it has an effective asylum system that can assure protection against return to persecution and abuse, and to work constructively on the reform of the Dublin II regulation to ensure a more equitable approach among member states.
Integration Policy
An effective integration policy must respect the rights of migrants. Human Rights Watch research in 2008 found that the "integration test abroad"-which requires family members seeking to join legal migrants from some "non-Western" countries to pass a test on Dutch language and society prior to admission to the Netherlands-as well as related financial requirements, disproportionally affect Moroccan and Turkish migrants and can undermine the right to family life. While some financial requirements have been amended following a judgment by the European Court of Justice, the integration test abroad remains. The new government should eliminate the test.
Counterterrorism Policy
Since the September 11 attacks in the United States, human rights have come under frequent pressure though counterterrorism measures. Human Rights Watch has expressed concern about efforts by the Dutch government to deport terrorism suspects to places where they face the risk of torture, including through the use of "diplomatic assurances" made by abusive governments that they will not torture returnees. Such an effort was blocked by the Dutch Supreme Court in the case of Nuriye Kesbir in 2006. We welcome the government's undertaking to the Council of Europe Commissioner on Human Rights in 2009 that it would not rely on diplomatic assurances, and hope that the new government will adopt the same approach.
International Justice
The Netherlands is the proud host to the International Criminal Court, as well as a number of other international tribunals, and has been an effective advocate for international justice for the most serious crimes. The Netherlands' recent failure to insist on justice for serious crimes in the Middle East and its "no" and "abstention" votes on important UN resolutions regarding violations of international humanitarian law in the Gaza war, however, have undermined The Hague's voice on behalf of accountability.
The Netherlands has played a pivotal role in ensuring that the European Union maintains a principled and consistent stance requiring that countries of the Western Balkans cooperate fully with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) as a condition for closer ties with the EU. This has been particularly important in the case of Serbia. Despite improvements in Serbia's cooperation, it has failed to hand over Bosnian wartime general Ratko Mladic, indicted for genocide at Srebrenica. Firm pressure from the EU has been essential in securing the arrests of high-level fugitives, including Radovan Karadzic. Human Rights Watch wrote to the Dutch government in June 2010 urging it to maintain its insistence on Serbian cooperation, and to exercise its leadership within the EU to ensure that no further steps are taken toward EU membership for Serbia-including a European Commission opinion on Serbia's candidacy-without full cooperation with the ICTY, including the transfer of Mladic to The Hague.
A Stronger EU Human Rights Policy
At the European level, we look to the Netherlands to play a leadership role in giving real meaning to EU human rights policy. The adoption of the Lisbon Treaty held out the promise of a more robust EU voice on human rights, but the past year has in fact seen a reduction in EU expressions of concern over abuses. This notable silence-coupled with statements by the EU high representative arguing that "quiet diplomacy" and "constructive engagement" are more suitable than public condemnation and pressure-risks bringing into question the EU's resolve to insist on human rights compliance as a core component of its foreign policy.
The ongoing discussions on the European External Action Service, as well as the planned, broader review of EU human rights policy, provide crucial opportunities for reflection and engagement, which we hope the Netherlands will use to ensure a maximally effective EU voice on human rights. Just like the UN secretary-general, the EU high representative cannot be everywhere and see everything. Consequently, she requires special representatives who can act as high-level experts and envoys not only on regions and countries as is currently the case, but also on themes of particular importance. Human Rights Watch is urging the creation of EU special representatives on key thematic areas, including human rights, international justice and international humanitarian law, women's rights, and children's rights. These experts would help shape, professionalize, and implement EU policy internally and externally, and would be natural focal points for representatives of other countries, as well as civil society.
Often the EU rhetoric on human rights is no more than lip service, with the EU not carrying through on its pronouncements. That should not continue. It undermines the widely accepted principles of the European Union and its member states, as well as the international credibility of the EU and its members. For example:
- Non-implementation of human rights clauses in third country agreements. Bilateral agreements between the EU and third countries routinely contain human rights clauses, committing both parties to respecting human rights and providing for suspension in the case of non-compliance. Unfortunately, these provisions are not enforced or even given real meaning before the EU concludes new agreements. One telling example is the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement that the EU intends to conclude with Turkmenistan, one of the most repressive governments in the world. Despite repeated calls from the European Parliament and civil society groups, the EU has to date failed to use the prospect of upgraded relations with Turkmenistan as leverage for positive change.
- Human rights dialogues should not be the only tool through which human rights are pursued. The EU's human rights policy today appears to have been largely reduced to the human rights dialogues in their many different forms-isolated talks held at a relatively low level, with unclear objectives, obscure content and outcomes, and most troublingly, seemingly no bearing on the overall EU relationships with these countries. The effect is that the dialogues end up marginalizing human rights in the relationship, rather than strengthening protection. At times it seems that the dialogues provide an excuse for not having to raise human rights concerns in other more weighty contexts. Just the fact of holding these dialogues seems to be considered an achievement, engagement for engagement's sake alone.
- Reticence toward benchmarking. A major obstacle to a more effective EU rights policy is the reluctance to spell out the improvements that the EU seeks in each country. EU officials often see the setting of benchmarks as an alienating, or even hostile, approach. But this absence of clearly articulated expectations leaves EU human rights policy without a clear direction, which in turn hampers not only attempts to measure what progress has been made, but also its potential to achieve concrete positive results.
Looking Beyond the EU
We would encourage the Netherlands and the EU to look beyond their borders and seek partnerships for the promotion of human rights. In today's multipolar world, international human rights policies are being shaped by a broader group of actors. Emerging powers such as India, Brazil, and South Africa play an increasingly important role. In fora such as the Human Rights Council, the Netherlands could encourage key countries-such as Argentina, Chile, Ghana, Nigeria, and Zambia-to play a more prominent human rights role, and could partner with smaller countries, such as Benin, Maldives, Mauritius, and Togo, that are making efforts at the domestic and international levels. The Netherlands could provide financial support for NGOs-particularly in Latin America and Africa-that are working to hold their governments more accountable for their positions at the international level.
Country Issues
There are, unfortunately, many situations of abuse around the world. Here we present only four where we believe that the Netherlands can play an important role:
Burma: The EU will sponsor a resolution on the human rights situation in Burma at the forthcoming session of the UN General Assembly. The Netherlands should press for the EU to use this occasion to support the establishment of an international commission of inquiry into war crimes and crimes against humanity in Burma, as requested by the European Parliament on May 20. Ritually condemning Burma in annual General Assembly resolutions is no longer enough. The international community needs to raise the price for continuing abuses by starting to investigate them. A commission of inquiry would be an important first step towards bringing abusers to justice and ending impunity in Burma.
Central Africa: In the past 18 months, the Ugandan rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) has committed hundreds of killings and abducted more than 697 people in the Central African Republic (CAR) and the northern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Nearly one-third of those abducted have been children, many of whom are being forced to serve as soldiers or sex slaves for the group's fighters. The recent LRA killings and abductions are part of the rebel force's longstanding practice of atrocities. Pushed out of northern Uganda by the Ugandan military in 2005, the LRA now operates in the remote border area between Southern Sudan, DRC, and CAR. Human Rights Watch urges the Netherlands, together with its EU and international partners, to develop a comprehensive strategy to protect civilians in central Africa from LRA attacks; arrest and bring to justice LRA leaders implicated in atrocities; and, together with regional governments, end violence by the rebel group.
DRC: As suggested by the recent epidemic of rapes in North Kivu and continuing LRA attacks, civilian protection remains an important goal for the government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and for the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO). The Netherlands can play a vital role in building the capacity of both actors to anticipate, respond to, and punish acts of sexual violence and other human rights abuses in Congo. As Human Rights Watch documents in a report to be released in Amsterdam next week, there are almost two million people who have been forced to leave their homes in the conflict-ridden eastern part of the country. International donors should better assist the displaced and ensure that they are not forced to return to unsafe areas. Donors like the Netherlands could support the deployment of a civilian protection expert group to eastern Congo to inquire into and rapidly report on civilian protection needs and challenges, and to recommend concrete measures to advance the protection of civilians, ensure unhindered humanitarian access and assistance, and end impunity for serious crimes in violation of international law. In addition, the Dutch government should ensure that MONUSCO has the means to carry out its mandate, including the urgent deployment of additional peacekeepers, and the rapid response capabilities, helicopters, and intelligence-gathering support that the mission has requested to enhance its capacity to protect civilians.
Indonesia: The Netherlands government should urge the Indonesian government to release all political prisoners in Papua and the Moluccas Islands-where dozens of pro-independence activists have been convicted merely for raising the Morning Star or South Moluccas Republic flags-as well as other prisoners held for peaceful expression of their political or religious views, and to repeal articles of the criminal code-a Dutch legacy-that have been used to imprison individuals for their legitimate peaceful activities, including articles on "treason."
Human Rights Watch has long worked closely on human rights issues with the Dutch government, as well as human rights and civil society groups in the Netherlands. We look forward to continuing our common efforts in future as we deepen and strengthen our presence in the Netherlands.
Sincerely,
Kenneth Roth
Executive Director
CC: Parliamentary chairpersons of the Tweede Kamer
Cohen, M.J. (PvdA)
Halsema, F. (GL)
Pechtold, A. (D66)
Roemer, E.G.M. (SP)
Rouvoet, A. (CU)
Rutte, M. (VVD)
Staaij, C.G. van der (SGP)
Thieme, M.L. (PvdD)
Verhagen, M.J.M. (CDA)
Wilders, G. (PVV)
